View full sizeCity of TigardThe new Ash Avenue Dog Park in Tigard includes several new features, among them a bike rack.

After closing more than a year and a half ago, Tigard's Ash Avenue Dog Park is finally open again. Visitors just may not recognize the off-leash dog area if they used it before.

The park, located just off Southwest Burnham Street next to the Fanno Creek Trail, now includes new benches, new play fixtures, a new shelter and a fire hydrant painted in a spotted dalmatian pattern. A drinking fountain inside the park includes a ground-level bowl for dogs to use.

The dog park closed in November 2009 as a result of the Burnham project, which reduced the downtown street to gravel for much of last year. Crews rebuilt the park -- rolled into the Burnham Street work -- as a way to thank its users for their patience, McMillan said.

Though the park is open, the city isn't celebrating it just yet. The fanfare comes July 24, when a public celebration will officially cut the ribbon on both Burnham Street and Ash Avenue Dog Park.